AVIATOR DISGRACED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

AVIATOR DISGRACED.

A FAKED HEIGHT RECORD. EXPOSED BY SECRET METER. „ . ... , -.. • "fj ; DISQUALIFICATION' FOE LIFE. Staggering from his aeroplane, apparently suffering ■ from the effects'of attoospheric pressure, Jean Callizo, a wellknown French airman, recently told an amazing story of his experiences near|y * eight miles above the earth. He claimed to have established a new altitude record of 42,650 ft, and for a time he was acclaimed as a hero. The A too Club do France, however, was sceptical. Callizo was summoned befor® this body, and, after he had been subjected to a gruelling examination, there came the sensational examination that the airman's claims had been discredited. The Aero Club charged Callizo with having tampered with the altitude register meter so that it recorded a height which, as a fact, his machine did not achieve. Further, it was revealed that, unknown to the aviator, another altitude meter was concealed in the tail of the aeroplane by a representative

of the Aero Club before the flight was started, and that this instrument showed that Calli.ro reached scarcely 15,000 ft. Cailizo's trick was first suspected by technicians, who could not understand why it was that the machine appeared to pas 3 a height of 10,000 metres without any appreciable loss of speed, and with his carburetter and engine working normally, in spite of the rarefield atmosphere. It was this which led to tha secret installation in his machine of a hidden barograph, and the discovery that Cailizo, before ascending, had marked his altituds meter chart with invisible ink which he developed during his flight by a gas pumped into the instrument through a tiny rubber tube. The Aero Club has struck off the record list the achievements claimed by Cailizo on October 10, 1924, and August 23, 1926. Calizzo admitted that he had falsified not only his latest, but a preceding record, though he still claimed that his first record of 10,164 metres was genuine. This declaration, however, failed to satisfy his judges, who have erased all three records. As a result of this decision the world altitude record is now held by the French war "ace," Sadi-Leconite, with a height of 11,145 metres. Cailizo is now disqualified for life from participation in any form of aerial competition. When, on a previous occasion, Cailizo was hailed as hoidei of a new world's altitude record, he was awarded the Cross of the

Legion of Honour, but it is understood that, following on his ostracism,by the Aero CJlub, ho has volunteered to return the decoration.